I've been expecting it. I thought I was prepared. And I'm still getting all tearful thinking about it. There are big changes and endings going on for me in Real Life (after twenty plus years, I'm giving up being SenCo), so I think this is hitting me a lot harder than I want or is reasonable.

Title: The Art of LosingAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: MatureCharacters: Eleventh Doctor; River SongPairing: Eleven/RiverSummary: You look after him. You be a good girl and you look after him. Missing scene. Hurt/Comfort. Angst.Word count: 1208 Spoilers: The Angels Take ManhattanAuthor's Note: Set near the end of the episode, just prior to the scene between River and the Doctor in the TARDIS.

Title: Not Another Love, SongAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: TeenCharacters: Eleventh Doctor; River Song; OC companionPairing: Eleventh Doctor/River SongSummary: The Doctor has a visitor, and his current companion isn't sure what to make of her.Word count: 1158Spoilers: NoneAuthor's Notes: Fluff. Banter. Humour. Set somewhere in Series 7a. I've given the Doctor a temporary companion while he's off on his own in-between Pond adventures.

Title: Through the Spaces of the DarkAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor Who/Party AnimalsRating: General AudiencesCharacters: Martha Jones; Tish Jones; Ashika Chandirimani; Tenth Doctor; the Master; Danny Foster; Scott FosterPairing: Ashika Chandirimani/Scott FosterSummary: The present collides head first with the Year That Never Was: Martha and Tish Jones come face to face with the painful memory of a day when the Master changed the rules.Word count: 2700Warning: character deathsAuthor's Note: An in-depth knowledge of 'Party Animals' is not essential for reading, but this won't make much sense to anyone who doesn't know what happened at the end of 'Doctor Who' Season Three, i.e. the Year That Never Was.

Holiday to Sorrento booked for next April. Icon not entirely unrelated. :)

Breaking news: I have been told that next year I will be working closely with Matt Smith*. Which came as a bit of a surprise.

Luckily, I did manage to refrain from giggling hysterically and cracking a joke about sonic screwdrivers. Unluckily, I think my facial contortions as I did this gave the person I was talking to the impression that I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. *g*

Title: The Loveliest Time of the YearAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: Teen/MatureCharacters: Eleventh Doctor, River Song, Amy Pond, Rory WilliamsPairing: Eleventh Doctor/River Song; Amy/RorySummary: Amy finds out more than she bargained for about the complex sex life of River and the Doctor. Unseasonable festive fluff with kinky bits.Word count: 1051Spoilers: noneAuthor's Note: This is totally what happened after 'The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe'. In my head.

So, you're planning a TV series set in the fifteenth century, eh? BBC Press ReleaseWell, I was naturally very excited to hear this.

Just two small problems:

1. It's based on historical novels written by Phillipa Gregory. This is not filling me with joy, because 'The White Queen' practically sent me to sleep and has put me off reading everything else she's written.

2. You're referring to it as 'The War of the Roses'. I have to hope this is a horrible typo on your part, because the author's website refers to it correctly as 'The Wars of the Roses'. But it doesn't inspire me with overwhelming confidence.

Yours sincerely

from someone who loves this period of history and is happy to have a 'big, fat old soap opera' approach as long as a modicum of historical accuracy is preserved, such as accurately using the name of the historical event in question

PSSemi-serious casting suggestions:Richard III - David Tennant. Can look tragically out of big, brown eyes and thus would make a perfect woobie King. Can also play a right bastard, depending on how the script pans out. The Duke of York - Philip Glennister. Just because.The Earl of Warwick - Christopher Eccleston. Northern, hard as nails. Could believably make and unmake kings.Jane Shore - Billie Piper. Smart, beautiful and warm-hearted with a string of admirers. Henry VI - Matt Smith. Has the right sort of chin. Could also make Henry sympathetic, tragic, awkward and annoying - all in the same scene.Edward IV - Bradley James. Blond, young, good-looking. Experience in being kingly.Margaret of Anjou - Keeley Hawes. Fierce, intelligent and commanding.Duchess of York - Alex Kingston. Proud Cis and former Rose of Raby. Oh yes.

Title: Once Upon a Fairy TaleAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: TeenCharacters: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, RorySummary: Something extraordinary has been seen in the forests near a small mining settlement, and there are plans afoot to hunt it down. Plans which include the kidnap of Amy, Rory and the Doctor.Word count: 7120Warnings: Some swearing.Spoilers: Doctor Who Series 5Author's Notes: Set before 'Amy's Choice'.

I was training to be a teacher when I first discovered your books, taking a course on Children's Fiction and discovering a fascination with science fiction and fantasy. The first book I ever read was 'Power of Three', and then 'Charmed Life' and 'Dogsbody' straight after. Your writing was accessible, vibrant and exciting, and your plots and characters fairly zinged off the page. I was hooked, and I have never become unhooked. That awful feeling of going to back to books you adored when young and then finding them a little lacking? Never happened with your books. Every time I read them (and, believe me, I've read them a lot) they come up fresh as paint.

Thank you for all the pleasure your books have brought me (and many others) over the years, and the pleasure they'll continue to bring all of us who read them in the future.

Title: Prayers to Broken StoneAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: PG13Characters: Eleventh Doctor, Jack HarknessPairing: Eleventh Doctor/Jack HarknessSummary: Jack Harkness encounters a new Doctor, one who's not quite himself and who seems set on putting the moves on Jack.Word count: 4193Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. 'Doctor Who' is the creative property of the BBC. Warnings: Highlight here to see a warning which involves a story spoiler=> The first part contains the threat of sexual assault. Not explicit, but could be triggering.Spoilers: Children of Earth

Title: With a KissAuthor: twitchbellFandom: Doctor WhoRating: GeneralCharacters: Eleventh Doctor, River SongWord count: 100Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. 'Doctor Who' is the creative property of the BBC. Warnings: Highlight here to see a warning which involves story spoilers => Character deathSpoilers: Series 6 - speculation only.

My eyes have just about recovered from watching Gavin Henson 'dance' to Muse's 'Uprising' on Strictly Come Dancing last week. Painful it was, my precious. The best thing I can say is that at least it distracted me from the artistic interpretation of the song from the singers and band. Oh, my poor eyes and ears.

This is from an interview with Matt Smith by The Times online:

“My poems? I wrote poems about the Wars of the Roses. I was reading a lot of Ted Hughes, Season Songs. They were awful poems. Oh God! ‘Hands outstretched to the open road . . .’ Just awful!”

He wrote poems about the Wars of the Roses. HE WROTE POEMS ABOUT THE WARS OF THE ROSES. I mean, how adorable is THAT? (Oh all right, probably not that adorable unless you're me.) He's officially my favourite Doctor now. *hearts* I don't care if they were awful poems. (They can't be worse than my Piers Gaveston one, Matt. Really. They can't. 'Blood stains your murderers' hands' is a lot more shit than 'hands outstretched to the open road.') I want to read them. I want to know EXACTLY what they were about!

Cast your mind back to 3rd January 2009. The date when Matt Smith was revealed as the next Doctor. I didn't know of him, hadn't seen him in anything. And the first thing I thought when I saw him was, "Bloody hell! It's Christopher Chant! Aka as Chrestomanci." Specifically, Christopher a few years after 'Conrad's Fate', as a young man round about the time when he became the Chrestomanci.

This was not a helpful revelation. How was I supposed to warm to the Eleventh Doctor when I had instantly seen the actor playing him as someone else entirely? Worse, what if the Eleventh Doctor had some traits that were remniscent of Christopher? Would he be very vain about his appearance? Would he have a habit of seeming frightfully vague when he was actually extremely alert to what was happening? Would he have a nice line in polite sarkiness? With a new Doctor, everything was up for grabs. I was worried. And I couldn't mention it to anyone for fear of sounding like a complete muppet. For over a year I worried!

And then, and then ... the fifth series finally aired. And the Eleventh Doctor is ... the Eleventh Doctor: he's by turn clumsy, gawky, adorkable, old-man-in-a-young-man's-body, awkward alien, manipulative, rude and brilliant. I already love him to bits.

And no, I don't look at him any more and think "Christopher Chant!" Except, except ... back to the icon ... except in the wedding togs he wore in 'The Big Bang'. And only in the stills, because Christopher would not move like the Eleventh Doctor. (Because nobody moves like the Eleventh Doctor.)